PAKISTAN: JAAMATE ISLAMI HOLDS GRAND TRIBAL JIRGA

JIRGA: A POSTIVE SIGN FOR RECONCILIATION

LAHORE: A grand Tribal Jirga organized by the Jamaat e Islami Pakistan at Mansoora Thursday, outright rejected the new US Pak-Afghan policy terming it a declaration of war and an aggression against the tribal people.

A declaration adopted at the Jirga said that the US after facing a clear defeat in Afghanistan, was targeting the tribal areas in revenge and the imprudent Pakistani rulers were victim of a conspiracy to chop off this sword arm of Pakistan only to please Washington.

History was witness that the Tribal people had never accepted foreign subjugation and whoever dared to challenge them suffered a humiliating defeat and the tribal area proved to be the graveyard of the invader, the declaration said.

The Jirga, therefore called upon the Pakistani rulers to immediately stop the military operation in tribal areas on US bidding and check drone attacks as a token to pull out of the US war.

Over three hundred tribal elders participated the Jirga presided over by the JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan in a jam-packed Mansoora auditorium.

Representatives from all the tribal areas and agencies addressed the gathering and apprised the audience of the results of the military operation in their area. While reaffirming their loyalty to Pakistan, they vowed to shed the last drop of their blood for the cause of Islam and Pakistan.

The Jirga called for the withdrawal of troops from tribal areas and going for
dialogue to restore peace besides quick rehabilitation of the displaced millions.

It noted that more than ten thousand innocent tribesmen-mostly women and children- had been killed in the military operation during the last five years while fifteen thousand injured were struggling for life. The military operations were practically carrying on the genocide of the tribal people instead of wiping out terrorists, it said.

In the present chilly weather, millions of displaced tribal people were forced to live in pitiable conditions. Because of drone attacks and army operation, all business in Bajaur, Malakand, Khyber, Mehmand, Orakzai, Kurram, Darra Adam Khel and Waziristan agencies had been ruined, schools and colleges had been destroyed and the residents had become mentally sick.

The Jirga believed that the US, Israel and India were conspiring ethnic, sectarian and factional riots in Pakistan to advance their agenda – to deprive the Muslims of their ideology and culture, to disintegrate this Islamic state and to take over its nuclear assets.

The Jirga however said that the tribal people fully understood the enemy designs and they were not ready to accept the US as their master. However, it counseled the Pakistani rulers to shed off US slavery, adopt an independent policy and accept the tribal areas as an integral part of the country.

It noted that the US and Hamid Karzai were planning dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan but the Pakistani rulers were bent on continuing bloodshed.

The Jirga demanded setting up of a judicial commission to assess the losses of the military operations and grant of due compensation for these, an independent financial package for the tribal areas to start business and development projects there.